TikTok faces a US ban next month after an appeals court declined to pause the measure, which takes effect if the popular video-sharing app isn’t sold by its China-based parent ByteDance Ltd.
The company’s request for the pause came after a federal appeals court panel in Washington upheld a law that bans the social media platform in the US unless ByteDance divests itself of the app by Jan. 19. TikTok asked for a delay while it appeals the decision and as it waits for President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration to weigh in.
TikTok will now likely ask the US Supreme Court to intervene, but it’s unlikely to prevail, according to Matthew Schettenhelm, an analyst for Bloomberg Intelligence.
The appeals court has already concluded the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act “satisfies the requirements of the First Amendment under heightened scrutiny,” a three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit wrote in Friday’s two-page ruling.
The company argued that a pause wouldn’t pose an “imminent threat to national security,” but that the ban would significantly harm users and the company. If the courts don’t act, TikTok will be removed from mobile app stores on Jan. 19, making it unavailable to Americans who don’t already use the platform. Eventually, current users will be unable to access the app.
In its earlier decision, the appeals panel said that the US government appeared justified in its national security concerns that China could use the platform to collect data on citizens or push propaganda. It rejected the company’s argument that the law infringed on constitutional free-speech protections.
More than 170 million Americans use the platform for information and entertainment and for promoting small businesses. Users are hoping that Trump will come to the rescue after he voiced opposition to a ban on the campaign trail as he sought to woo younger voters. He had unsuccessfully tried to force a sale of the app during his first presidency.
TikTok wrote that the Trump administration could pause enforcement of the law or “mitigate its most severe potential consequences.” The act gives the president and the attorney general “broad discretion over the timing and implementation of its provisions,” according to the company’s filing.
The Justice Department asked the court to deny the request, explaining that an “indefinite delay,” possibly lasting for more than a year, “would be especially deleterious to the government’s and the public’s interests in enforcing the Act.”
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